SAN RAMON — The City Council is considering creating a committee to decide just how much their services are worth to the city.

The committee would be made up of five residents, also a representative from both the planning and parks commissions. They would advise the mayor and council on how much compensation their jobs are entitled to, based on time involved, the scope of the responsibilities and comparable salaries in other cities.

City Attorney Byron Athan said creating such a commission would eliminate an apparent conflict of interest.

“Individually, City Council members are obviously interested in their own salaries,” he said, “and they have to balance that with the interests of taxpayers.”

However, committee members would be appointed by a council majority, and the decision would not be binding.

Councilman Jim Livingstone said it’s a bad idea.

“I don’t think the system is broken,” he said at Tuesday’s council meeting. “Everyone up here is responsible enough to make decisions based on information that (the city staff) can provide. Going to a system with a commission like this is totally unwarranted.”

Council members currently earn $700 a month, the mayor $100 more. They get a 5 percent cost-of-living adjustment every two years. Before a raise in 2004, they each received $400 a month, and had been since 1984.

The current rate is about the same as in Dublin. Pleasanton recently rescinded a move to put its council salaries in that range.

Councilman Dave Hudson said the city needs to account for the increased responsibilities of an elected mayor.

Councilwoman Carol Rowley agrees.

“The duties of an elected mayor are so much more,” she said. “(Mayor H. Abram Wilson) never has any down time. He’s a great spokesman, and we should consider raising the salary for the mayor.”

Hudson said better comparison cities would be Brentwood and Antioch, which also are rapidly growing.

Council members in those cities earn $569 and $941 per month, respectively. ContraCosta County’s biggest city, Concord, recently voted to up its council members’ salaries from $758 to $1,300 per month, effective in two years.

“I don’t think we need a special commission to set salaries,” said longtime council watcher Roz Rogoff. “It’s overkill. It would be interesting to see what would happen if the commission said you’re making too much money — you might end up paying to be on the council.”

Rowley said she would like to know what the difference would be if a committee evaluated the salaries as opposed to city staff.

The system would be similar to one used to formulate salaries for state and federal lawmakers, Athan said, except those decisions are binding.

Brentwood used a city subcommittee to evaluate salaries five years ago.

The San Ramon council will return to the subject after discussing it at a February meeting.

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